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Monday, 19 March 2018

Israel's Leading Soccer Clubs Join the Israeli Esports Association

Tel
Aviv, Israel – Two
of the most prominent soccer clubs in Israel enter e-Sports: Maccabi
Tel Aviv and Maccabi Haifa both recruited FIFA players with the
intention to compete in national & international tournaments.
Both clubs joined the Israeli e-Sports Association.

Maccabi
Haifa was the first club to recruit 18-years-old FIFA player Or
Izack,
who won the Israeli national e-Sports championship in the FIFA
category last year.

Maccabi
Tel Aviv had the most recent recruitment with twin players Or
and Dor Eligula,
who are prominent in FIFA tournaments in Israel in both singles and
doubles competitions.

Both
clubs announced their intention to participate in the upcoming
Israeli
National eSports Championships
later this year, and joined the Israeli e-Sports Association, which
was founded in 2010 with the goal to promote and manage e-Sports in
the country.

While
FIFA is very popular among casual and console gamers in Israel, it's
national e-Sports scene isn't quite as big as other e-Sports titles
such as League of Legends and Counter-Strike. For example, League of
Legends' national championships prize pool last year was
approximately $15,000, while the FIFA nationals had only $600.
Viewership numbers are also significantly lower than other e-Sports
titles: the CS:GO championship had a record breaking viewership
number of 45,000 unique viewers of the final games, while the FIFA
finals had drawn a little more than 200.

Even
so, it is easy to understand why soccer clubs chose FIFA as their
entry point to e-Sports: it's relatable and well known within their
fans. Following this move by Maccabi Haifa and Maccabi Tel Aviv, it
is expected that more clubs will invest in e-Sports, and potentially
recruit players for additional e-Sports titles.